


Kissing With The Fishes

by Alexilulu



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Drowning, F/F, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 18:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14575524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexilulu/pseuds/Alexilulu
Summary: The Life of a pearl diver isn't easy, but it could be worse. Plenty of exercise, lots of sun, decent money.Well, before the mermaids got involved.





	Kissing With The Fishes

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by

    Ann never had a reason to watch the pearl divers, the fishermen and women who ply the coast day in day out in search of a living and food for their schools. It’s not as if she ever romanticized the land, nor the strange beings who can’t live below the waves like her and Ren, condemned to the land forevermore. They’re different, and that was that. But still, she found herself hanging around the same spots on the coastline where the oysters congregated most days, especially when the water was calm and the seascape was alive with beams of sunlight. She was never here for the sunlight, though, the gorgeous day lost upon her in the face of her true quarry.

    She was here for the pearl diver.

    She would arrive below in an explosion of movement, diving with all her might down to the seabed with powerful strokes. Ann couldn’t help but admire the corded strength of her limbs, even the lower ones that she only dimly understood the function of. Could only imagine the strength of will, of purpose that she must need to dive so deeply for so precious a prize. Watching her work, Ann felt at peace. Watching the diver’s hair stream out behind her as she descended, a streamer of jet black stretching above her, she couldn’t help but imagine swimming with her for just a minute, even just a moment. To offer the diver a glimpse of herself, a smile and a wink as she passes, anything to still the flutter in her heart that doubled itself every day that she kept herself hidden.

* * *

Ren never had a reason to watch the fisherman. These things happen by coincidence, happenstance, including him being there in the first place. His dearest companion Ann, the one who taught him how to make his way in the world, seemed to love hanging about this forsaken strip of shoreline of late.

He was never invited, of course. Ann does seem to hold some modicum of common sense, understanding the unseemly nature of her attraction to the divers. Ren is merely watching out for his mentor, ensuring she is not captured or worse by the brutish men when her infatuation distracts her from the hook or the net. Payback for a lifetime of protection and companionship and a dozen things besides those, he tells himself.

So when he grows bored of watching Ann fawn over the pearl diver, he turns to more interesting pursuits. Taunting the seals further out in the sea, swimming deep and hunting for baubles and stones in the seabed. So when he goes racing by a boat with a pod of dolphins, flickers above the water with them to show off, the glimpse of the fisherman on his boay staring right at him takes Ren by surprise. The wide brown eyes thrown wider by shock, the taut muscle of his stomach and arms gleaming with sweat in the noonday sun as he had been preparing to cast his deadly net, all of it is a shock to Ren in turn. He’s lured his fair share of sailors to rocks and tricked them into giving up their treasures or worse, but...Never has anyone made him feel like that before.

Ren feels covetous, but not of his riches, but the man himself. Those eyes, so innocent. That body, powerful and dangerous and beautiful.

Damn that Ann. Always getting him into trouble.

* * *

Shiho hauls herself and her sack of oysters up into the deck of their boat with practiced ease, only for Ryuji to take her by the armpits and throw her the rest of the way into the boat, shouting incoherently. She shoots to her feet, shoving him back. 

“What the hell has gotten into you, Ryuji?”

“Merman! I saw a merman not 10 bells past!” Ryuji slaps her arm aside, taking Shiho by the shoulders. “I swear on everything I own, I saw him coming up after you, clear as daylight!”

Shiho shrugs his arms off of her, seizing him by the head and feeling his forehead. “You’ve sunstroke, you hopeless fool. Have you been drinking seawater too?”

“I swear, Shiho. I saw him.” Ryuji deflates, shoulders slumping.

Shiho shoves past him, unfurling the sail. “We can talk about it later, Ryuji. Lets get home before we lose the daylight.” She looks over her shoulder, watching Ryuji sit heavily down on the back of the boat, holding his head in his hands.

* * *

Ryuji knows he's being stalked now, is positive of it. Whenever they go out on the boat, Shiho leaves him to his nets and dives for pearls. And whenever they go out, he swears he sees the merman.

The first time, it’s after a cast of the net, his face just below the surface of the water just outside the expanding net’s reach, mocking Ryuji with a lascivious grin.

A grin full of spiked teeth, row after seemingly endless row. 

The next time, he’s thrown himself onto a spit of rock, singing in an unearthly pitch a soothing melody that Ryuji finds himself humming as they sail back to port for the evening, haunting him even in his sleep, dreaming of the man swimming ever closer on the wine-dark ocean towards him, the scent of sea salt more akin to blood filling his nostrils--

Once, he comes so close. The merman throws himself up on the edge of the boat, leaning his head against the rim and looking up at him. Ryuji’s never seen eyes like those before, lashes as long as a fishhook and utterly without guile, regarding him with curiosity and the hint of a smile, one jagged tooth peeking out from behind his pouty lips. And when Ryuji moves towards him, he’s gone, disappearing back into the brine with a wet slap of water against the hull.

It’s maddening. He wishes the beast would just...have his way with him and be done with it, or whatever it wishes. Kill him, cast him into the sea, rob him blind and strand him. Anything but this.

And then, it’s next week. His turn for pearl diving.

“You’re being such a child, Ryu.” Shiho can’t help the mirth in her voice, covering her mouth with one hand.

“I am not! Just because he won’t show off for you doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist!” Ryuji gesticulates wildly, pointing at the water where he saw the merman only moments ago, when Shiho's back was turned.

“If he exists, he’s probably not even trying to hurt you. Maybe he’s simply bored. There can’t be much to do in the ocean, can there?”

“He’s got teeth, Shiho! Rows and rows of them! Perfect for eating meat!”

“You know, I still have scars from that time you bit me as a child. Maybe he’s your long lost father, come to teach you a lesson about biting girls.” She giggles. 

    “Shiho, I’m serious! He could eat me down there!”

“Alright, enough. Just—” Shiho seizes him by the shoulders, wrenching him off balance and throwing him into the water in a motion far too practiced to be anything but normal. She looms over him when he surfaces, sputtering. “Just do your job, it’ll only take a few minutes. I’ll keep a weather eye out for your merman, and I’ve got the harpoon right here. Just flail for help, and I’ll come to your rescue.”

“Great. Thanks.” Ryuji makes a vulgar gesture at her before he heaves a deep breath and dives down. 

Damn that Shiho. At least he’s got his belt knife, and maybe even a sack full of oysters by the time it reaches him. Maybe he can bribe the beast off with a tasty treat that isn’t his own flesh and blood.

* * *

Shiho stretches on the deck, limbering up before she starts casting the net. Helpfully, she’s stripped out of her tunic, the fabric already soaked through with seaspray. 

Ann watches her back from behind, fascinated by the play of muscles under her glistening skin. Before watching the diver, Ann had never realized how much more beautiful that water made her body once she was out of it. But enough staring. This is her chance, at last. With a flick of her tail, Ann drops under the boat and returns on the other side. Ascending cautiously, she pokes her head up just above the side of the boat, keeping her eyes level with the edge as she watches Shiho gather the net up in both arms. Before she has a chance to cast it, Ann hauls herself up into Shiho’s line of sight, waving with her free hand and grinning as widely as she can without showing a hint of her fangs.

Shiho shrieks, fumbling the net cast and throwing it out far over Ann’s head. She scrambles away from the edge of the boat, eyes wide in shock.

“Oh fuck! Oh my God, Ryuji was right, you’re real, you’re—wait, you’re a girl. Are you a mermaid?” Shiho tilts her head when Ann nods vigorously. “Have you been tormenting my friend? He’s been screaming bloody murder about a merman…” Shiho frowns when Ann shakes her head equally vigorously, throwing her soaked hair everywhere. “Then…” Shiho runs to the side, leaning over the edge to look down into the water. Ann tentatively places her hand on Shiho's, sucking on her own bottom lip in worry. 

The clear seas affords Shiho a good look down at the bed of clams they're above, and she doesn't see Ryuji anywhere. 

“...Oh hell.”

* * *

Ryuji had been trying to prepare himself for anything. Mermen, two mermen, 20 mermen, a Hundred mermen, even.

He didn’t get any mermen, for a while at least, so he went about his business hunting for pearls and picking juicy oysters for dinner instead. To his chagrin, the beast snuck up on him when he had a knife wedged in an oyster, startling him by circling like a shark and making him fumble the knife between two rocks where he can’t reach it.

Great. So Ryuji swims in place, holding his breath while he waits for death. Sorry, Shiho, but this harvest’s gone to the fishes, he thinks to himself.

The merman comes to a slow stop in front of him, a hand taking him by the bicep. Gently, he realizes, like the hand of a lover. Another closes across his other bicep, and Ryuji locks eyes with the merman, sure he’s staring death in the face.

He finds nothing of the sort, at least on the surface. Just a starstruck boy, his long hair drifting about him like kelp, eyes fixed on Ryuji and a smug smile on his lips. He's not…that scary, Ryuji realizes. Thin, scrawny even, but well built and with a face anyone would fall for. And eyes that feel like they seen right through him, eyelashes fluttering once before he releases Ryuji. 

The mermaid swims away slowly, curling sinuously in the water and turning back to him just a few meters away with a come-hither smile on his lips. He wants to…swim together? Sure enough, he nods when Ryuji points to himself, and beckons with a finger.

Every single story, sea shanty sung in the village inn and superstitious bone in his body ring in his ears, a screaming cacophony of warnings and abjurations against the menace of the siren, the terror mermaid and the selkie, not to mention the horrible kappa. 

But if Ryuji was really afraid of those things, he wouldn't be out here. Just as easy to make a living doing something that doesn't challenge him. And this, well… if this is a challenge by the God of the ocean waves, then challenge accepted. 

So he swims after the merman, who looks delighted at his pursuit, swimming further along with leisurely sweeps of his tail, staying just out of Ryuji's reach as they swim deeper and further away from the boat, curving around rocks and through a small reef. He can feel his stamina flagging along with his breath, but Ryuji continues their game of chase until he manages to catch up with a sudden burst of strength, catching the merman’s arm with his hand and coming to an exhausted halt, dragged along by him until they both come to a halt, Ryuji's eyes half-lidded. 

Maybe this was a bad idea.

He can see the merman get closer, tilting his head this way and that as if he's trying to understand why Ryuji stopped, why he looks so exhausted. He looks puzzled by the thin stream of bubbles coming from Ryuji's mouth as his strength finally gives out, far beyond the limits of his lungs or anything else. What a stupid way to die, Ryuji realizes as his vision fuzzes at the edges, everything focusing down to the merman and his slow, dawning realization of the man dying in his arms. The last thing Ryuji remembers is seeing his face draw nearer, that yawning mouth of fangs opening (with only one row of teeth, he realizes) and a long tongue lolling out of it. 

* * *

Shiho thumps Ryuji on the back one last time as he pukes up the rest of the seawater over the side of the boat, the two mermaids at a safe distance from the disgusting display on the other side of the boat. They’re chattering in some language Shiho doesn’t recognize, more akin to clicks than anything else, and gesticulating wildly as they speak to one another. Ryuji groans, and Shiho thumps him one more time, eliciting an even more distraught groan.

“C’mon, stoppp, there’s nothing left. Fuck.” Ryuji flops back into the boat, laying on his back and panting. Shiho squats down next to him, looking worriedly from the merman (who looks distraught, but she’s not sure if his eyes are wet with tears or if he’s just wet because he lives underwater) to Ryuji.

“What happened? Did he hurt you?”

“No. I don’t think so? I was—dumb. Did something stupid.”

“What the hell did you do? He looks like he’s going to cry, Ryuji.”

“It’s not his fault.” Ryuji sits up, fixing the merman with a look. “Hey, it’s not your fault. I was dumb, and you just took off, so—”

Shiho takes him by the shoulder, turning him back towards her. “Ryuji, just tell me what happened.”

“We just swam for awhile, but I think he likes me? That’s what all the stalker stuff was, probably.” Ryuji scratches his head, and the merman nods emphatically, then makes a motion everyone here understands: he puckers his lips and performs an exaggerated kiss with the air, his hands positioned like he was cradling someone's head. The mermaid elbows him, chattering in their language, and he shoves her back, squeaking back ill-naturedly. 

“...Nice.” Shiho raises an eyebrow, locking eyes with the mermaid. “Do...you like me, then? Is that what this is?”

The mermaid nods emphatically, her hair slapping the merman in the face For emphasis, she makes a complicated gesture with her hands, forming something approximating the shape of a heart. The merman does the same, squeaking for Ryuji’s attention and holding it out towards him.

“...Well, what the hell do we do with this, then?” Ryuji looks to Shiho, who is too busy blushing with a hand over her heart, eyes locked with the mermaid. “Oh, damn it. Shiho, they're mermaids, we can't just--”

Shiho kneels down at the edge of the boat, putting a hand over the mermaid’s when she pulls herself up to the side. “I...Can I see you tomorrow?” The mermaid nods emphatically, throwing her arms around Shiho’s neck and accidentally pulling her into the water, their lips pressed together as they sink into the sea. 

“Great.” Ryuji gripes, sitting down on the boat’s small bench. His merman smiles in a way that does little except raise Ryuji's heart rate, making grabby hands towards him and cooing between obscene kiss noises. Ryuji groans, looking away for a moment before shooting to his feet. “no almost drowning me, alright? I gotta breathe,dude.” Akira nods confidently, and pulls Ryuji under the waves once they join hands.

**Author's Note:**

> I've got ideas (thanks again Jaya and crew) for a chapter 2 so that might happen soon, since this AU owns my ass apparently.


End file.
